It’s always been a metaphor for the devastation of Hiroshima and Nagasaki

I know that this is a really common take about Godzilla, but it's pretty clearly not what the 1954 original Godzilla movie was about. The aesthetics of Godzilla's destruction is informed/inspired by nuclear destruction. Not just of Hiroshima or Nagasaki but particularly of Bikini Atoll nuclear testing. The opening scene in the movie would have reminded people of the Daigo Fukuryuu Maru, a fishing boat that was hit by some of the testing just earlier that year.

But while the aesthetic of Godzilla's destruction is nuclear, its place in the story is really different. The story is about scientists who develop a brand new devastating weapon that could destroy the mindless rampaging monster, but they have to decide whether or not it is worth introducing such a weapon that would permanently change the world.
The "oxygen destroyer" that they invent in the movie is a much more direct parallel to the atomic bomb, and Godzilla is the Japanese Empire. We must defeat [the Japanese Empire / Godzilla], but is it worth unleashing [the atomic bomb / the oxygen destroyer] onto the world?
The 1954 Godzilla movie is very clearly an attempt to empathize with the American perspective on using the first atomic weapons.

Godzilla is the bomb, but it's also the Japanese Empire. It's a symbol of violence and shared scars between the United States and Japan. USA and Japan are the only two countries to have made Godzilla movies (as far as I know) and I think it would be inappropriate for any other country to make one, but I don't think it's necessarily inappropriate to set one in New York. Though, it's probably less meaningful than the 1954 movie (to be fair, most Godzilla movies after the 1954 one are less meaningful).